Podcasts/Episode 5 - Demo disc deep dive

Episode 5 of the Hidden Palace podcast is now available!

We talked about prerelease demo discs in episode 2, and we’re back at it again. Since then, Bo has been trawling through the PlayStation library in an effort to identify demos that have hidden secrets.

Some of the demos discussed in the episode include:

• Test Drive 5: The demos of this PlayStation racing game from Accolade include a hidden menu labeled “Oh Arse” that lets you adjust how cars are rendered in game. This got cut from the final builds, but you can access it in one demo with a patch.
• Vs: The demo for this PlayStation fighting game apologizes for not being able to include the “exciting alternative music” in the final game. Bypassing the restrictions allows you to see a song on the sound test screen that didn’t make the retail release - not exciting enough?
• Micro Maniacs Racing: This PlayStation game from Codemasters doesn’t normally allow you to access its Options menu. But with a patch, you can see that the developers seem to have cut a feature that would let you race on courses from Micro Machines V3, another game from the same studio.
• Tales of Destiny: This PlayStation RPG, has a “debug room” in its demo builds, that allows you to warp anywhere and explore beyond the usual limits. There are patches that make it accessible.

Here are the lists of PlayStation demo discs:

• North America: Game-Rave.com
• PAL regions: demo pals
• Japan: Google Docs

Hidden Palace Podcast, episode 5: Demo disc deep dive

Revisiting the 32-bit era through prerelease demos

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